After Effects
by Kaimei Hinoke
Summary: The ninja of Konoha are no longer who they were. Now living in the bustling city and fending for themselves as normal people, they have to figure out how to fix their broken lives. Focused on Team Seven and their new encounters.


_Well, here's the first fanfic that I've ever posted up before. I'll give a more detailed explanation within the next few chapters, but basically, it's about the life that the ninja of Konoha and all of the other villages have to live after a horrible disaster destroyed everything that they had ever considered precious. Now that they're fending for themselves in a world much like the streets of NYork, they have to figure out how to fix what happened or leave it behind them. (that was a sucky description, sorry it couldn't be clearer...) Please, enjoy and review!_

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_I have to get up_, I tell myself silently. The alarm clock hasn't rung yet, but I know that it's ready. Ready to suddenly start its usual chatter, allowing the radio-man to announce a weather forecast that never seems to stray from the usual cloudy-with-a-chance-of-rain idea. Ready to start another day that will eventually end up right back where I started the morning before. It never lets me down (a loyalty I'm sure I could appreciate if I thought about it). But that's not the reason that makes me open my exhausted eyes to stare out a window portraying a scene I always seem to wake up to. Honestly, I could care less about another dreary day. I'd sleep in and have a lovely time at it.

No, I can't blame the alarm clock for waking me up with its silence.

I just don't want to think about what happened.

**The apartment** is immersed in a dimness of grey and emptiness. And a bitter coldness, I realize as I shiver slightly. I glimpse out the foggy window, revealing to me only a blurred view of drab brick apartment buildings with dark windows. Sometimes I like to think that I can see people looking out from the windows in those buildings, staring at me the same way I try to stare at them. So far, I have only imagined those things. I've never seen a person in those windows. Curtains are always sashed, panes always shut. It's as if whoever lives beyond those windows fears what little sunshine this dilapidated street ever gets. If only they knew what the sun was really like when it caresses your face and makes you smile, making you feel better in spite of what you feel. I felt myself smiling as I imagined the sunlight shining on me on top of the trees…

I haven't thought about that for awhile.

_I have to get up_.

I lay on my back in my bed, tangled in sheets that were never properly tucked under my mattress.

Actually, I'd rather stay right where I am.

Blearily, I rub my stomach. It feels…so empty. Not in the hungry way. No, it's felt this way longer than last night. It's felt this way since we got here to this city, this street, this tiny apartment. Since we left the village.

A shuffling on the other side of the room breaks my thoughts. Silently, I thank it. I watch as Sasuke pulls up the covers that had long fallen down to the end of his bed. His back was to me. Either way, I knew he was awake. He always was. Nightmares haunted him every night, seemingly more and more often. On the nights that I couldn't sleep I could see him sitting up in his bed, his face upon his scarred arms. He probably doesn't even realize that I notice. But on those nights of tossing and turning on his mattress, I see what he suffers through. He'd never admit it though. So I don't say anything.

A pittering sound begins outside, rain beginning to spill from the sky. I sit up to watch some small raindrops blow onto the window. They slowly run down the glass, tiny rivers left behind. Another view that I've become so used to. Running my fingers through my blond hair, I glance again over at Sasuke. He spoke before I could think of something to say.

"What time is it, Naruto?" he murmured quietly. His voice was raspy, his words without any feeling. It caught me in surprise, right in midthought of what I was thinking to say. It took me a while to comprehend and come up with answer. I had no idea myself.

"…It's that time," I replied, much quieter than I had realized. He didn't answer. "We should prolly get up, or else we'll be late to meet up with Sakura." That time just a little louder, to make sure he heard me. It still came out as only a hoarse croak of words.

There was silence for a few rainy moments. Then he sighed. "That time, huh?" His words dragged, from exhaustion and a hint of something – what was it? – that I couldn't fully grasp. It sounded as if guilt and regret had replaced his usual sarcasm over the months, yet it had still left him some cynical way to mask his words.

"Yeah," I answered. He turned his head to glance up at the ceiling, his misty eyes staring straight ahead, barely seeing. I looked down at my hands. "It's the same time as it always is."

The radio-man's voice was midway through his usual forecast when I finally got up.

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_Preview of the next chapter:_

Between us, for only a concise moment, there was a \revelation/ that suddenly brought us back to the Leaf Village, way back when we were still Chuunin. It was right after we had gotten Sasuke back to the village, a mission that had almost failed miserably. It was inside of Naruto's hospital room, him smiling at me with that toothy grin that could always make you feel happy too. _See Sakura? I kept my promise for you_. That was what it told me that warm evening. He had every reason to smile, still alive even after he was almost completely destroyed by Madara. Sasuke had intervened just in time, a notion that was so incredibly unexpected that it saved Naruto's life. _We got him back_. Naruto was alive. Sasuke had come back – unintentionally, being unconscious, yet still back – and after a few years of being in the village again, life became so much better than before. _We got him back, and now it's going to be all better_. That smile. How much it said to me that night. And how all of it was so true.

At least, it was for some time.

Then it was gone. We weren't in that white hospital room anymore; weren't Chuunin anymore; weren't smiling anymore. It was all gone. The only things left were our presences. And even those were missing some of their pieces, still caught in the rubble of our old home. But right when Sasuke came in through the archway, the happiness was both gone and still present. _We got him back, Sakura_. That smile.

_The word in the slashes \ / just doesn't fit. Any suggestions? Any critique for the rest of it? And also, I'm considering a job for Miss Sakura. I've narrowed it down to a _real estate agent, pharmacist assistant, or a medical physicist. _Pretty exciting, right? __Please help me out, because I want to make this story work! Thanks for the time, and please review and tell me what you think!! _


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